the cotswolds mystery

The Cotswolds Mystery

One day, all the sheep in The Cotswolds disappeared!

A THRILLING WHODUNNIT

www.CotswoldsMystery.co.uk

Meet the suspects...


Ross Bearman & Ross Whitmill (Ross & Ross), Victoria Wills (The Chipping Norton Tea-Set), Helen Walters (Smoothas), Lady Bathurst (Bathurst Holiday Cottages), Drs Simon Gillson & Karl Braine (Concierge Medical), Richard Parsons (Magician), Stephanie Saunders (Floral Design), Jim Broughton (Broughton Restorations), Donna Holland (Chester House Hotel).

From Left To Right...

Every week, for 11 weeks, a new chapter will be released on each Friday of this must-read mystery based in The Cotswolds. The competition is open to everyone and there is a chance to win some amazing prizes.Enter as many times as you like with any of the following:

Cotswolds Tour £475

Spa day for two £150 Lunch & Drinks £25

Timeless Spa Break £420

Dinner, B&B & Beauty £325

Tour & Explore and Azure

3 Nights self-catering £400

Keeper's Barn

2 Nights B&B £260

Chester House Hotel

£100 Voucher

Lapstone Lifestyle Shop

Family entry pass £17

Batsford Arboretum

1 Night B&B £180

Lords Of The Manor

Dinner + B&B £215

Horse & Groom

The Beauty Rooms

Voucher £100

Molemi

India Mahon

Voucher £50

Champagne afternoon tea £44

Slaughters Inn

Dinner + B&B £135

The Fleece Inn

The Barn Cotswolds

2 Nights self-catering £260

2 Pairs of socks £15

Sock Solutions

Meal & Drinks £75

PREGO

A Pair of tickets £44

Everyman Theatre

4x4 Hire

Kooky Tours

Guided tour in a Bentley £299

Campden Coffee Co.

Beauty Treatment £30

Smoothas

Voucher £100

Orchard Lane

The Halford

Holiday Photo Shoot £345

Taylor & Taylor

Park Entry £29

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Dormy House

2 Nights self -catering £200

Crafty Cottage

Sunday Lunch

Wood Norton

2 Days MGC Hire £295

Vintage Classics

Entry for school class

Stanway House

Champagne Supper

Russell’s Fish & Chips

Couples package £150

Prescott Shooting

Buckland Manor

Bed & Breakfast £290Dinner for 2

The Kings Hotel

Cotswold Craft Room

Kids Craft Party

Honeypot Cottages

3/4 Nights self-catering, £400

Miyuki's Kitchen

Sushi Making Lesson, £190.

Richard Parsons

Magic Show

The Chipping Norton Tea Set

Cupcakes for school class

The Greenway Hotel

Meal & Drinks £85

Mode Spa

Spa Treatment, £40.

The Arden Hotel

Meal & Drinks £85

Wyck Hill House

Bed & Breakfast £180

Stanway House & Fountain

2 Entry passes £14 Bed & Breakfast £125

The Kings Hotel

Batsford Arboretum

Entry for school classDinner for 2

Horse & Groom


Russell’s of Broadway


Wood Norton

Dinner for 2

The Fleece Inn

Gluts & Gluttony

Picnic lunch £100

The Cotswolds Mystery COMPETITION

WHO YOU THINK DID IT AND HOWSHEEP SELFIE / SHEEP PHOTOBOMBSHEEP SIGHTING OUTSIDE THE COTSWOLDS

WRITTEN STORY SUGGESTIONILLUSTRATION FOR THE STORYNEW CHARACTER SUGGESTION..OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY!

Entries may be submitted on [email protected] or Twitter/Facebook. Entries that are not photographs, documents or electronic files, may be submitted scanned or photographed.

You can enter as many times as you like. Entries can be written, drawn, sculpted, knitted, photographed, photoshopped or any way you like – your creativity is your boundary.

We may use your entries in the story, on social media or as part of the PR campaign; giving you full credit, of course!

Weekly winners are drawn from all entries sent to us in the past 7 days. Winners are announced on Twitter and told directly.

Among all the entries, a winner will be chosen at random for The Grand Prize: a 10-day holiday in The Cotswolds, with hotel stays, B&B’s, lunches, dinners, spa days, activities, photos, tickets, tours, car hire and much more, with value of £7000+

* See full terms on each individual prize on CotswoldsMystery.co.uk

Each week the best entries will be put

forward for a chance to win a weekly prize*

The Grand Prize: a fantastic 10-day holiday

in The wonderful Cotswolds worth £7000+

10 day 4x4 Hire £1400

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PLEASE NOTE: The Cotswolds Mystery is an entirely fictional story... only people and places are real, no events in this story have actually occured.

This is Chapter 11. Click here to read the previous chapters.

Richard was reeling from his photo-shoot, he had no idea how he had made all the furni-ture in the room disappear, let alone made it come back. He had been trying to get to grips with the trick Lady B had given him, and all of a sudden this. Stef had told someone on the phone, but he had no idea who. All he needed was to get to Cirencester, to the Bathurst Es-tate and to confront Lady B as soon as possible.As he drove up to the estate he noticed all the cars and the fairground rides, and then all the people. It was early, but it was the start of her party, in his confusion of the night before he had forgotten that it was today. He was meant to be performing at her party, but he’d not even given it a second thought.He parked and jumped out, as he exited the car park he saw Vicky at her pop-up tea room,

all her new crockery around her, she looked so happy as she was helping her custom-ers to seats and offering them newly printed menus.He ran past her, searching the crowds for Lady B. He didn’t see Steph before it was too late, he’d run in to her, sending her beautiful flower display skywards, they all landed with a thump on the grass.“I’m so sorry Steph, I didn’t see you, I was just looking for Lady B, I’m so sorry”, Rich-ard trailed off as he saw the look on her face.Steph stood up and straight-ened her dress “well yes, I bet you are looking for her. Look Richard, I’ve spoken to Stef, she told me what you did last night at the pho-to shoot at Foxhill Manor... what you’ve done and what you are capable of with your

Vicky

StephanieStephanieStephanie

@cotswoldmystery

visit www.cotswoldsmystery.co.uk


#CotswoldsSheepMystery


magic... obviously it was you who made the sheep disap-pear! What have you got to say for yourself?” Richard looked dismayed, but at least now he knew who Stef had spoken to; “I’m trying to put it right, I had no idea, that’s why I need to find Lady B” he was stumbling over his words as he tried to get them out so quickly.Steph’s eyes narrowed, she didn’t know what to believe any more, she’d been friends with Richard a while now, and she never thought he would be capable of doing anything like making all the sheep in the Cotswolds dis-appear, but now, well now everything had changed. She knew where Lady B was, and told Richard she would take him to her. They walked in to the house, it never ceased to amaze

Richard just how amazing this place was. He was soon brought back to reality when he heard Lady B talking near-by. She was surrounded by several people, and was talk-ing about the pictures on the walls. Richard didn’t care that he might be interrupting though, he needed answers.“Lady B, I need to speak to you” he called across the room. The whole crowd turned to see Richard and Steph. Amongst the prob-ing eyes he noticed Simon and Karl alongside the Ross’s, they looked shocked by his shout-ing and demanding voice and he could see them whispering amongst themselves.Lady B turned, “OK Rich-ard, in a while I’m just in the middle of something”, Rich-ard cut her short. “No Lady B, now, I need to talk to you NOW!”

She looked shocked by his sud-den demands; it was rare that anyone spoke to her in such a way. The raised voices had given the sudden silence more prominence, it was only broken with the entering to the room of another crowd, waiting for their turn of the tour, Lady B had enlisted the help of her Chief Shepherd to help out. Since all the sheep had disappeared he’d had little else to do, and besides his family had worked at the Estate for generations, what he didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing.Richard couldn’t wait any more as he blurted out “Why did you make me do it? I only found out yesterday that it was ME who had made all the sheep disappear, but I had no idea, you made me do it.”Eyes widened and jaws dropped by Richard’s sudden admission.




Royce.“I think I can help you there” everyone was shocked at the new voice in the conversation and turned to see the Bathurst Shepherd standing proud.Simon turned to Karl “THAT’S HIM”, he shouted, “That’s who was seen letting the sheep out at the Bazaar, that’s the guy from Jeremy Houghton’s sketches”.The shepherd continued “The Bathurst Trick. It’s only for livestock, my Father’s Grandfa-ther used to use it for diseased stock, he would get rid of them so they couldn’t contaminate any other animals. I noticed that the book had moved, the one with the trick in, and I put two and two together the night before the Bazaar.”Simon couldn’t contain him-self any longer; “But why did you ruin the Cotswolds Bazaar, why did you let all the sheep

Lady B looked devastated. She’d been trying to put this whole mess right for weeks, she didn’t want anyone to find out it was Richard, let alone because of her own making. “Richard, I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just wanted The Duchess to be fixed. She’d been rattling for months, and I knew that the old Bathurst Trick was meant to make things disappear, so I thought if you performed it near her, it would make the rattle disappear and she would run smoothly again, I don’t know what happened to make the sheep disappear, I honestly don’t.”Some of the onlookers looked puzzled. Who was The Duchess? Simon saw the looks on people’s faces and quickly explained that The Duchess was Lady B’s pride and joy, her beautiful Rolls

rampage?” Other people had heard the commotion and were flocking in from outside to lis-ten to what was unravelling in the gallery.

The Shepherd turned to Simon “It was the only thing I could do, I wanted to save the sheep from disappearing. I thought if I let them out, they would run away, then, once all this nonsense had died down I could round them up again.” He looked dejected,


Lady B

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@cotswoldmystery



#CotswoldsSheepMystery

“But it didn’t work, they got scared and rampaged, I was devastated, it wasn’t meant to be like that, and then they all disappeared anyway. The spell was never meant to be performed by a real life ma-gician… that is what made the spell that much stronger” his voice became small as his eyes welled up.Richard could see the despond-ent looks on everyone’s faces as they all realised what had happened, Lady B was looking imploringly to him. He walked to the front of the gallery, in front of everyone, and where he could look out of the windows. He raised his hands and muttered something under his breath. He closed his eyes and shouted “SHEEP, COME BACK”.Everyone gasped; as they looked out of the windows they could hardly believe their eyes.

They were back, they could see sheep running around the hills, and they could hear the faint bleating of the ewes calling to their lambs. Everyone turned to Richard. He still had his eyes closed.When he opened them, he saw Lady B approaching to give him a huge hug. He’d done it, he’d managed to

get the sheep back.Lady B called for champagne for everyone, and as Bernard Lamb rolled up the driveway to cover the event, he was sur-prised to see the sheep amongst the crowds of people drinking champagne. He grabbed his notebook and ran towards the house.


Lady B

Richard

the cotswolds mystery

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